Life
1880-1952; worked as an architect; served in the Royal Naval Reserve during the First World War; in his yacht The Kelpie, transferred guns for the Volunteers from Darrell Figgiss tug, 1914 - the arms being shifted to the Chotah before landing at Kilcoole, Co. Wexford; sailed his small boat Saoirse, around the world, 1925, and issued Across Three Oceans (1926), a book of observations on circumnavigation; climbed mountains with Mallory, Young, Robert Graves, and others; he was god-father of Conor Cruise OBrien (q.v.).

CommentaryGeorge Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England (?1932; and rev. edn. 1972), Bachelors Walk [Chap.], gives an account of Conor OBriens involvement with Darrell Figgis in the purchase and shipment to Ireland of 1,500 guns for the Irish Volunteers [gun-running], OBrien landing his portion of 500 at Kilcoole in Co. Wicklow.

NotesNamesake: C. OBrien is named with J. Molloy as one of the compositors [typesetters] of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, printed at Liberty Hall on Sunday 23 April 1916 in James Carty, Bibliography of Irish History 1912-1921 (1941), Introduction.

Commemoration: Conor O’Brien’s boat The Kelpie is depicted among others on the quay wall of Wicklow Harbour.